Workmen's advocate., 1887-01-29


 dition of the working class does not seem to have changed for the better, but rather for the worse, presumption which is supported by the following facts; At the meeting of the English Trade Unions (lSS5) it was reported that the Amalgama- ted Engineers, the Iron Founders, the Boilermakers and Iron Ship Builders, the Steam-engine makers, the Iron Moulders of Scotland, the Amalgamated Tailors, and the Amalgamated Carpenters and Join CTS in nine years (lStG-lSS4) alto gether had received f2, ,Sl8,54 and expended f2,963, lS0, thus havlng' to make up deficiency of tl44, 632. Over two-tifths of the expenses went to the support of the unemployed. The Amalgamated Engineers laid out for their unemployed ere, ,00o in 1884 and E>S,669 in 1885, when there had been almost no strikes in the latter year, their reserve fund thus diminishing by E34, ,6S8, and although their membership grew in numbers, their receipts decreased. The Union of the London Compost tors (G,00O members) expended in 1884 t9,000, of which sum f1,000 was used for supporting the needy ones; during the last twelve years the amount that has been paid to their unemployed, rose in arlthmeti- cal proportion from l-2-3.
 The value of cotton goods annually produced went up in forty-fve years 1S35-1619) from f554, ,000,00 to El,4O4, ,000,O0O. But during the same period the number of hands employed in this branch of industry fell from $40, 900 to 4S2,9O3. The manufacture of woolen goods en- ployed 100000 hands in 1885 and only l34, ,344 in 1879. At the same time the annual value of the product rose from f4S, 500,0 ,000 to f22S, ,000,- 900. One hundred and twenty seven million tons of coal were dug in 1873, while in 1880 the produc- tion amounted to nearly one hun dred and thirty-nine million tons, the number of hands decreasing during the same period from 53T,- 000'tO 413, 93S. James Cairn, the the renowned expert, showed that in agriculture every moving ma chine supplies the work of ten hands and every steam engine | plough that of sixteen horses and eight "hands."
 These facts prove beyond doubt that by improved machines and methods, {. c., by the further divis- ion of labor and by the continued change of manual into machine labor nowadays the same number of "hands' in the same number of hours supply much more work than formerly, and that in consequence many "hands" become supert1uous and are thrown out because the con- sumption or sale of the augmented product does not grow in the same ratio as the productlveness of labor. Such superhuous "hands" if belong ing to trade unions, have to be SUD- ported by them: Mence diminution 0f tter funds. But the great majority do not belong to trade unions and thus sink into starvation and misery: MeHce quick increase 0f the paupers.
 And this condition of the working people prevails more or less wherever the capitalist system of production has been developed to some degree. For England especially, however, the situation is made worse yet by the competition of the Germans, French. North Americans, etc., who at present are reducing gradu- ally but steadily the industrial and and commercial preponderance on the world market which she main- tained until lately. On account of that successful competition, the English capitalists are being forced to throw more and more ''hands' and machines out of employment. And this is the reason that Social ism IS penetrating now quicker and quicker and deeper and deeper into the mass of the English working population.